Ads
related to: physical characteristics of rivers and lakes in the world worksheet
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Physical properties of aquatic ecosystems are determined by a combination of heat, currents, waves and other seasonal distributions of environmental conditions. [13] The morphometry of a body of water depends on the type of feature (such as a lake, river, stream, wetland, estuary etc.) and the structure of the earth surrounding the body of water.
This stream operating together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. River ecosystems are flowing waters that drain the landscape, and include the biotic (living) interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions of its many parts.
Collectively, Earth's lakes hold 199,000 km 3 of water. [7] Most lakes are in the high northern latitudes, far from human population centers. [8] [9] The North American Great Lakes, which contain 21% of the world's fresh water by volume, [10] [11] [12] are an exception. The Great Lakes Basin is home to more than 35 million people. [13]
A river is a natural freshwater stream that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it runs out of water, or only flow during certain seasons.
Other lakes are found in depressed landforms or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened over a basin formed by eroded floodplains and wetlands. Some lakes are found in caverns underground. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last ice age.
an artificial waterway, usually connected to (and sometimes connecting) existing lakes, rivers, or oceans. Channel: the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks. See also stream bed and strait. Cove: a coastal landform. Earth scientists generally use the term to describe a circular or round inlet with a ...
Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 22% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes, and 14% in other lakes. Swamps have most of the balance with only a small amount in rivers, most notably the Amazon River. The atmosphere contains 0.04% water. [15]
The following unifying characteristics make the ecology of running waters unique among aquatic habitats: the flow is unidirectional, there is a state of continuous physical change, and there is a high degree of spatial and temporal heterogeneity at all scales (microhabitats), the variability between lotic systems is quite high and the biota is ...